After a Few days passed, the field was ready for planting. Before I started doing that, I heard a familiar voice from behind. "How have you been, Nex?". It was Crow. I turned around and saw a Shade who was dressed in black leather clothes, with a hood over his head. "Crow, how did you know I was here?". He replied "It wasn't hard to figure out. I only know one Human with that arm. Besides, who else would do something crazy like farming inside Sedon?". I laughed, and walked up to him. We hugged, then I said "Good to see you are well". He nodded, and replied "Good to see you too. You've changed". I pointed at him while saying, "And you haven't? No longer dragging corpses with you, and you matured".
He smiled with his red mouth. "Turns out using a corpse has disadvantages too. Although the corpse allows for better defence, it limits my real abilities and strength". It made sense, after all the corpse was not his real body. He then asked "How about you? You became an old man it seems". I replied with a snort, "If I cut my hair and trim my beard, I would look younger than you. Anyway, how are your eyes? Did you get used to them?". He nodded, and said "I can see a lot better now. They just had to adjust I guess. I can't see all the colours, but… I developed something special as well".
I asked curious "You mean your eyes evolved? Improved?". He replied "Sort of. I'm the one scouting, because my eyes can distinguish between illusions better. Although Eterians are still quite dangerous, I'm not an easy target for them". I patted his shoulder, and said "Great news! In that case, I can leave Sedon with a calmer mind". He tilted his head, and asked "You are leaving?". I explained my plans to him, as well as what happened in Arangard.
Crow was quite shocked when he heard about Arangard. "You always step into big shit. I mean, you just returned here, and now you have to deal with the war… I almost pity you". I waved my hand, and asked "What about the power struggle?". Crow became serious all of a sudden, and motioned for me to follow him. We left to a more private place, where Crow said "I'm currently part of the Sedon's Council. There are no kings or queens here. Only five Shades, who control the whole city. I grew to power not too long ago, but I planned to take..". I stopped him, and said "No rush. We need to deal with this war first, then we can deal with everything else".
He nodded, while I continued "Infighting is bad for us at this time. Make sure to cooperate, but watch out not to suffer losses". He replied "I know. You want to go to Apium… I don't think they will help you though. They have their own internal struggle". I said "I figured as much. Don't worry though. I will not ask them for help, I will order them. They can either help us, or become slaves to Eterians. I can be ruthless too, one or two Fraction Leaders will not change the outcome of the war".
He smiled, and said "You were always crazy, but you are still alive. I told you before, I owe you my life. Whatever you want done, it will be done". I replied "And I told you not to think of yourself so lowly. We are friends, not master and slave". I then asked "What did you figure out, during your scouting?". He replied "We are in trouble. The Vanauts are planning something big. I wasn't able to figure out what exactly, but if the Royal Army backs off… I think they will strike at that time".
I asked "Did you see Vanauts? What were they doing?". He replied "And that is the weird part, mining". I thought 'Mining? What for?'. But then a sudden thought entered my mind. I exclaimed "Impossible! Did they find Yellow Dust too?". Crow stood there for a while. He shook his head, and said "I… I'm not sure. I didn't see the Yellow Dust there, but they are digging something. It could be Ore… or it could be as you said Yellow Dust". This was bad, real bad. 'If they find Yellow Dust, we are screwed... No, they shouldn't be aware of it. Avians perished long time ago. Although Lizards are aware of the Yellow Dust, they didn't know where I took it from' I thought.
Either they were digging for another reason, or they uncovered Yellow Dust. Whether by accident or intentionally, I had to know what was being dug out. I said "You have to find out. If it is the Yellow Dust… We have to destroy those mines. They can't be allowed to get their hands on it. Not now, not ever". He nodded, and said "I will try to find out". On a second thought, I replied "No, we will go together. We will have better chances that way". He nodded, and we returned to the fields.
I finished planting the seeds, and gave specific instructions to Lerry. "Lerry, remember this is very important. On this note, you will find how and when to water the herbs. Make sure others understand too, we depend on those herbs to grow". Lerry took the note, and said "I… I will do my best!". I replied "Great. I will be gone for a few days, I hope you can manage on your own". He nodded his head a few times, and we left.
While we walked, Crow said "Lerry is a good kid. He will do his best, I know that". I asked surprised "You know him?". He nodded, and replied "I do. He is similar to how I was in the beginning. I have my eyes on him, if he fares well in this war, I will take him in". 'Not a bad idea' I thought. We soon left the city, and headed north east.
Crow said, "Vanauts made a secret camp quite far away. As I said, they are digging something, but I couldn't get close enough to spot what it was. The worst part? There are a few Eterians supervising their activities". 'This could be potentially bad then' I thought, and asked "How close can we get, before they will locate us?". He replied "Not that close. The Eterian was already suspecting something was off, that was why I left. I was quite far away from their camp, but thanks to your training, my sight improved a lot".
"I meant to ask, did you develop your instincts?", I asked. He nodded in reply, then said "To some extent. I wouldn't call them as good as yours… You must've been born with them or something. My other senses improved too, but over such a large distance, I couldn't hear what they were talking about". I asked "Do you have the mask? I want to give it to someone else?". He took it out, and passed it onto me. "Here, take it. I no longer use it. Besides, I'm happy that someone else will go through similar hell, I had to go through". I hid the mask away, and said "We are both good at stealth. This time, we will try to infiltrate the camp. In the worst case, we can always run away… I hope". He replied "Yea… I'm not so sure about that. I have no idea what improvements you've made, but I'm not confident in my skills enough to attempt it. You will see for yourself".
I nodded, and didn't ask him any other questions. Instead, he asked me some. "Tell me, what did you do throughout that time?". I replied "Trained. I met three masters of the Arts I'm practicing. What's left for me, is to master those Arts. I guess I killed some Royals back home too". He laughed, and said "Yea, I expected you did something crazy, reason I asked. I assume you met with Harlin and Lazar?". I nodded, then replied "Yea, I learned from Lazar about the war… Then experienced it myself. Those Contraptions… I remember their design quite well, we should attempt building some of them too".
He nodded while saying "That is not a bad idea. We found out the hard way, the destructive power of those things. Sedon's walls look like this, because of those Contraptions. I think they called them Destroyers. A fitting name, if you think about it". He then added, "With our pace, we will arrive at our destination in about a day or two. It is quite far away, but also too close for comfort". I nodded, and said "I just hope it's not Yellow Dust. Otherwise, I will have to take drastic measures". Crow simply looked ahead, and didn't comment. He knew as well as I did, if they had Yellow Dust, the war could be over quickly.